NBA has owned Christmas Day in the sports world for years and 2025 is no different. Five games happened on Thursday for another all-day holiday NBA betting feast.
We went back to the 2008-09 season – when the NBA started having five games on Christmas – to find out how teams that played on Dec. 25 fared the rest of the season. The Lakers are the only team that has played on Christmas every year since the league started its now annual tradition of a holiday quintuple-header.
How Recent NBA Christmas Day Game Participants Fared
Finish | No. Of Times | Pct. Of Time |
Won NBA Title | 14 | 8.2% |
Reached NBA Finals | 26 | 15.3% |
Won a Playoff Series | 86 | 50.6% |
Reached Playoffs | 136 | 80.0% |
Missed Playoffs | 34 | 20.0% |
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How Do NBA Teams Fare After Playing On Christmas?
Dating back to the late aughts, teams that competed on Christmas Day have seen their share of success come playoff time. Over the past 17 years, 14 teams (or 8.2% of the total number of Dec. 25 teams) won the NBA Finals after playing on Dec. 25. Another 12 reached the Finals, for 26 total finalists (or 15.3%) emerging from the Christmas slate.
Last year's games were the rare ones that did not include either eventual conference champion, as the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder watched the five Christmas games on TV like the rest of us.
The 
Thunder, a solid favorite to repeat as champions at top NBA betting apps, played on Dec. 25 this year along with nine other teams.
On Dec. 25, 2024, the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets competed. Looking back, 2024 was the first year since 2018 that the year-end NBA champion did not play on Christmas Day. The only other time that happened since the 2008-09 season was in 2010.
The TV slates on Christmas tend to feature not only popular teams, but successful ones. Just more than half (50.6%, or 86 teams in total) went on to win a postseason series after playing on Dec. 25 and 136 of them (80.0%) made the playoffs – something to bear in mind for NBA futures wagering. Just 34 out of 170 squads (20%) failed to reach the 16-team postseason field.
NBA Christmas Games: Who Is Playing On Thursday?
This year, the NBA's golden day of regular season competition sees the defending champion Thunder host the San Antonio Spurs, with the Spurs winning 117-102.
Also on Christmas, the New York Knicks defeated the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers 126-124, as the Knicks played in the opening slot on Christmas for the fifth consecutive year.
The rest of the scores from Thursday: Golden State Warriors 126, Dallas Mavericks 116; Houston Rockets 119, Los Angeles Lakers 96 and Denver Nuggets 142, Minnesota Timberwolves 138 in overtime.
Oklahoma City's reigning Most Valuable Player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (above) has +125 odds as of Dec. 26 to win that honor again this season with DraftKings Sportsbook. He is neck-and-neck with Denver's three-time MVP, Nikola Jokic (+120 odds) on the operator's board.
Looking forward, Oklahoma City is the overwhelming 2026 NBA Championship betting favorite, with the best odds (+115) as of Dec. 26 available for customers using the BetMGM bonus code. Other Christmas Day teams are contenders with the operator too: The Nuggets are second at +650, followed by the Knicks (+1200) and Rockets (+1300).
Including Thursday, San Antonio defeated OKC twice in a three-day span. The Spurs are next in NBA title odds at +1400.
The 
Lakers (+1600), who played on Christmas Day for the 26th consecutive year (dating back before our research for this story began), round out the top six.
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